The current debate about the origins of music involves a wide range of theories, which can be broadly categorized into adaptationist ( Huron, 2001 Honing and Ploeger, 2012) and non-adaptationist ( James, 1890 Sperber, 1996 Pinker, 1997). Sexual selection and the evolution of musicality
(2017, 758) define the broader term of artisticality as “the instinctive propensities to develop psychological faculties that underlie a whole array of multimodal and extraordinary aesthetically enhancing activities,” which encompasses musicality among other things. Musicality as a stable human trait can be discussed within a bio-musicological framework ( Wallin, 1991) and studied from cognitive, developmental, neural, comparative ( Fitch, 2015) as well as evolutionary ( Wallin, 1991) perspectives. Both approaches can mutually support each other. For example, studying humans’ ability to sing may offer insights into the basis of human musicality, whereas studying the diverse forms and social functions of songs across cultures may be an endeavor followed by ethnomusicologists. He suggests differentiating between musicality (i.e., “the set of capacities and proclivities that allows our species to generate and enjoy music in all of its diverse forms”) and music (i.e., “the product of human musicality”). Fitch (2015, 1) has argued that the debate about the origins of music can only move forward fruitfully if the object of study is clearly defined. Our results, together with other recent empirical evidence, corroborate the sexual selection hypothesis for the evolution of human musicality.Īlthough music, like language, is a universal phenomenon ( Blacking, 1973 Brown, 1991), its origins remain unclear, especially because musical behavior has no apparent immediate survival value ( Darwin, 1871). No specific effects of music-induced pleasantness and arousal were observed. In males, only dating desirability was significantly increased by musical priming.
After musical priming, females’ ratings of attractiveness and dating desirability increased significantly. Participants were 35 females and 23 males (heterosexual psychology students, single, and no hormonal contraception use) matched for musical background, mood, and liking for the music used in the experiment. Musical primes (25 s, piano solo music) varied in arousal and pleasantness, and targets were photos of other-sex faces of average attractiveness and with neutral expressions (2 s). We hypothesized that musical priming would increase sexual attraction, with high-arousing music inducing the largest effect. Here, we built upon this approach by presenting the person depicted (target) as the performer of the music (prime), thus establishing a direct link.
We previously demonstrated that music varying in emotional content increases the perceived attractiveness and dating desirability of opposite-sex faces only in females, compared to a silent control condition. A novel research strand examines the effect of musicality on sexual attraction by acknowledging the importance of facial attractiveness. Darwin did not regard musicality as a sexually dimorphic trait, paralleling evidence that both sexes produce and enjoy music. Darwin argued that musicality evolved by sexual selection, functioning as a courtship display in reproductive partner choice.
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